Give newborns automatic library cards, authors urge

A group of leading authors are calling for every newborn baby to be signed up to a library card automatically at birth.

Writers including Sir Philip Pullman, Richard Osman and Joanne Harris have backed a proposal by think tank the Cultural Policy Unit (CPU), who say a universal, lifelong membership issued at birth would boost literacy.

"A lot of people still feel that [libraries are] not for them," but automatically giving out cards could show that "every single young child that's born is welcome," Kate Mosse told BBC Radio 4 Today.

CPU director Alison Cole said they want to "integrate" the library cards directly with health visitors, midwives, and schools to ensure all families have access.

The think tank has proposed the creation of a "National Library Card" to ensure every citizen is connected to their library network.

It said the plan will boost literacy and reading habits, and expose families to parenting support, community and cultural experiences at libraries.

Membership would be linked directly to birth registration, instead of signing up online and bringing proof of address or ID to a local library.

Award-winning novelist Mosse, known for her book Labyrinth, said being automatically given library membership at birth would make a difference.

"If it is part of your welcome pack for your child to our society, then it is much more likely families who haven't necessarily had a library card... will think that's for me too...," she told Today programme.

"I take my grandchildren, who are three and six months to the local library for story time. It helps with isolation, it will make an enormous difference to young parents who maybe don't have a support network near them.

"It just says its something you could do and it puts it in people's minds, and that's why it could be transformational... it fits very well with the government's mission of intervention in the early years."

Sir Philip said: "It's a brilliant and optimistic plan, and I hope very much it will come into existence as soon as possible".

Louie Stowell, author of children's books Loki, described the scheme as a "fantastic idea".

"It reminds everyone that books are for babies as well as older children - not everyone knows that babies can enjoy and benefit from being read to from birth," she told BBC News.

"It also normalises library use and, even if the admin involved in getting a library card isn't vast, it's one more thing to do when you're juggling nappies and sleepless nights."

But the British Book Awards winner author stressed the scheme would need to be paired with funding for libraries with fully-trained librarians.

"There's no point signing babies up for libraries that don't exist," she added.

A CPU report estimates the scheme would cost between £14m to £22m annually and it proposes it as a joint Department for Education and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) initiative.

A spokesperson for DCMS, when asked about the proposal, said: "[Libraries] are trusted, free-to-use transformational places at the heart of their communities that can help boost children's speech and language and social development and engender a love of reading from the earliest stages of life onwards.

"Public libraries are funded and run by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for determining how best to meet the needs of its communities.

"We encourage library services to promote their services to families from the earliest stages of a child's life."